


the nautical theme doesn't do it for me

by Regarklipop



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Blackmail, Canon-Typical Violence, Cruises, Joe knows it's for the mission, Multi, Sexual Harassment, Undercover Missions, mention of organ trafficking, very minor sexual scene between Joe and the villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:08:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26637844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Regarklipop/pseuds/Regarklipop
Summary: They're undercover on a Cruise ship trying to take down an organ trafficker with a fetish for breaking up happily married couples. Nicky's mustache itches.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 127
Kudos: 341





	1. Cast Off

**Author's Note:**

> More details for the Sexual Harassment and Blackmail in the chapter 4 notes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for non-detailed description of vomiting

This is not the stupidest thing Nicky’s done in his entire immortal life. 

That thought passes through Nicky’s brain as he gently rubs his husband’s back. Poor Joe is retching desperately into the toilet of the tiny cabin bathroom, a room they will remain in until Joe is able to get his orientation back. 

There’s half a cup of ginger tea left that’s sitting on the bathroom counter and Nicky wishes so solemnly that the two of them were literally anywhere else but here. The fact that this includes Nicky’s most abhorred place on this earth, Seattle, Washington, shows how truly dire the straits are. As long as he can bring Joe with him, though, he will suffer whatever it takes to get off this godforsaken boat.

“I’m sorry, my love,” Yusuf says, his forehead balanced on his arm on the toilet seat. Nicky takes a moment to stare down the ginger tea that should have done something at this point, then continues to rub Joe’s back. 

“It’s okay. We knew this was a possibility as soon as we heard about this from Copley. I’m honestly surprised it took until the ship actually left port for this to happen,” Nicky’s hand moves up to the back of Joe’s neck and he lets his thumb drift gently across Joe’s hairline. Joe chuckles roughly.

“I threw up over the side of the boat while you weren’t looking,” Joe’s eyes are closed and can’t see Nicky wince in sympathy. 

Joe begins again: “This is, I think, the second stupidest thing I’ve ever done,”

“Ah? And what was the first?” Nicky says dropping a kiss onto the back of Joe’s neck.

“Probably that time when I killed you in Alexandria,” Joe starts to move away from the toilet, and Nicky’s heart lifts with the possibility that his love is feeling better, but Joe immediately looks like he’s about to lose his balance, and it sends him right back over the toilet. 

“Mine was going to Seattle,” Nicky says solemnly after Joe is finished heaving. The tired laughter that echoes from Joe brings a fold to the corner of Nicky’s mouth with a smile tucked into it. 

“Truly the worst thing to have happened to the world,” Joe says as he manages to tip his head towards Nicky. “Don’t you need to be down at dinner soon? There’s not much you can do while everything tries to kick in.”

Nicky does need to be down at dinner soon, but he looks down at Joe and makes a face. Joe’s smile is tired, but it reassures Nicky, sort of. 

He can’t believe he has to go be a person when all he wants to do is stay here and make sure Yusuf is okay.

“Do you want me to order anything for you before I go? We can try the medication again?” but Joe’s shaking his head.

“I already took far more than I should have, we just need time to for it to either kick in, or for my inner ear to adjust. Time that you don’t have because you need to be getting changed and going to dinner at the buffet,” and isn’t that the horrific truth of it. 

Nicky hates cruises.

*

He arrives in the dining room and is immediately overwhelmed by the sound of 300+ passengers all vying for the best portions of the buffet. It puts Nicky on edge to not have a better view of the floor layout, and its only the knowledge that they are hunting down a middle-man to one of the most powerful organ trafficking groups in Europe that keeps him from walking back out the door. 

He gets a plate and whispers a prayer to St. Michael’s for protection against disease. As he looks around the buffet, Nicky wants exactly 2% of the food presented to him, but they are here for the foreseeable future and Nicky cannot avoid eating for the entire time. It’s not as though he hasn’t eaten worse during his time on this planet.

He thinks again of Joe’s seasickness, and the fact that he will not be getting Joe any food from this place. He’ll pay off as many kitchen staff as he can if it means that Joe’s food avoids…

Well avoids getting sneezed on and then picked up by bare, unwashed hands as the middle-aged woman across from him has just done.

He pulls on the Cowl of European Medieval Suffering and moves to the line, forgetting everything he’s learned about food safety since the last time he’d had to forget everything about food safety. When he’s got something resembling a full plate, he turns out towards the dining room proper, scanning various tables and noting that they’ve picked a good time to come because all of the communal tables have at least on person sitting at them. 

“Sorry to bother you but do you mind if I sit here?” He asks, smiling at Booker. The white tablecloth on the communal table is the buffet’s frantic last grab at refined dining for passengers who refuse to go to one of the restaurants. 

This, Nicky decides, is part of why he needs Joe here. He desperately misses the man’s sardonic comments, and Nicky knows that he’d have one about this buffet situation. 

“Please, go ahead,” Booker gestures, barely making eye contact with Nicky before going back to looking deeply into Nile’s eyes. 

It’s the bare minimum of a plan that they’ve walked into this mission with, which isn’t exactly comforting given the caliber of criminal enterprise that they are dealing with, but overall, the plan is: capture criminal’s attention, get the info on higher ups/clients/transactions, kill him once they’ve gotten everything they need. On top of the shoddy play, they need to have extensive contact with the man, so they’ve all made some minor aesthetic changes. Copley had not been impressed by how the group went about picking covers (folded paper slips in a bowl) but the system worked. 

Booker’s choices have left him with hair that is just too long to be called a buzz cut, dyed dark brown like his facial hair. His second round of picking has him as an IT technician in a medium sized company, and he’s currently sporting a fake company polo and a pair of golf shorts to complete the look. 

Seeing him still rattles something in Nicky. 

It had taken three years for Booker to rejoin them after encountering Quynh, but Quynh had phoned Andy three weeks after finding Booker.

“When I saw his apartment after breaking in, I asked him if this was how he lived. The apartment was so sad,” Quynh had said over the phone, and while the call had started with Andromache sobbing like Nicky had only ever seen once before, it ended three hours later with Quynh and Andy talking like they had never been apart.

“I hope you aren’t staying there? I’m sure you can find a- what did Nile call them? Those places you can stay at that are someone else’s house?”

“Airbnb,” Joe had said back, absently. A book in one hand and the other playing with Nicky’s hair as Nicky dozed in his love’s lap.

“I told him if he wanted my company then he better clean a room for me to stay in,” Quynh was silent for a moment. “I’m not here to save him Andromache, but you and I both know that we are not meant to be alone. I recognise your anger. I’m sure you can understand mine,” Quynh pauses, clearly struggling. "I need some time to learn how to be anyone other than who I was in the bottom of the ocean. I never slept while I was down there, Andromache, just seesawed between the frantic instinct in response to drowning and death. To be with someone who understands pieces of me that I cannot explain to anyone else is a blessing. I need to do that before I see you. Your guilt will hurt me otherwise,” Andy had nearly bitten her lip clean through.

“Whatever you need. Whatever you need I will give you,” Andy whispered.

Three years passed since the call and it had still been impossible for Nicky the first months after Booker’s return. Joe and Nicky had both avoided the man, focusing instead on rebuilding and reinforcing their connection with Quynh. Nicky knows it was likely difficult for Booker to separate himself from the woman he had spent three years living with, but he’d said nothing about it. 

Six years on, Nicky still hasn’t truly spoken to Booker outside of the missions they’ve been on. He knows that Booker is trying his best – is reading books on grief and not drinking anymore. But Nicky still struggles with the image of Yusuf on the medical table, and the fact that they’d offered Booker love and he’d still betrayed them instead of talking to them. Whether or not he’d intended to be the only one to go with Copley at the outset, his intentions hadn’t mattered when Nicky woke from nightmares about Dr. Kozak's needles, his clothing soaked with cold sweat. It’s worse on nights when he dreams of Joe in the same place.

It had been Nile who had been best able to work and connect with the man who is half the story of the prodigal son. She’d held some resentment, but Nile hadn’t known Booker or any of them that long, and so it hadn’t burned like it had for the rest of them. Nicky does remember, however, that as Nile had gotten to know the three of them better, her feelings had flared, eventually dying when she was reassured that their anger did not need to be hers. 

There’d been more than a few occasions where Nicky, Joe, or Andy had woken up to the soft sound of Booker and Nile’s voices in the kitchen after his and Quynh's return. In the small spaces the group often occupied, it had been hard not to hear what they’d discussed. 

It was a pact between them: Nicky, Joe, Andy, and Quynh, to never talk about what they’d heard, but eventually it was Nile that Booker looked at. Nile who had finally gotten a laugh instead of a morbid chuckle out of Booker. Nile, who, just by being herself had made Booker want to be someone better. 

Nile has brought joy to all of them, and when her heart had needed help, in grief, in anger, in sadness, all of them had been more than happy to offer a place of rest for her. When she had missed her family, when she had realised what she had done as a marine. Nicky knows that Nile sees Andy as a mentor more than anyone, but it’s Booker she goes to for a lot of her feelings about these things, his own experience closer to hers. It’s Yusuf she goes to when she wants a tenderness that none of them can provide the way he can. 

Three more years, and things have slowly started to come to a lull. They are still moving, still shifting and making room for one another and learning things. Maybe one day Nicky will be able to speak to Booker again without feeling the raw ache of betrayal.

Nicky realises that he’s done an unbelievable amount of naval gazing. Not a great look for a man who is currently dressed in a floral shirt and a pair of golf shorts.

Across the table, Nile looks happy. It’s surprisingly only her second undercover mission, and the first hadn’t required the same degree of physical change. She looks pleased next to Booker, a wedding and engagement ring sitting pride of place on her ring finger, a blonde wig cut to her shoulders and a pair of bright red glasses. She’s changed her makeup in such a way as to change the structure of her face and she perfectly embodies her fake job as social media coordinator.

She’s teasing Booker about something and the smile he’s got on is all for her. His hands clasp her left hand, his thumb drifting over her knuckles. Mr. and Mrs. Lapage, they’d announced, and Copley had put his face in his hands while Joe smiled.

Nicky starts on his chicken, casually surveying the room from his position after realising it looked like he was staring down his seatmates. His eyes catch on Quynh and Andy, seated at a table 20 metres away, Quynh’s hand on top of Andy’s, her other arm braced on the table and cradling her head. 

It had taken Quynh a long time to be able to be alone in any way even after she returned with Booker. There had been some nights where Andy had sat with her in the bathroom while she used the toilet, Quynh still terrified of small rooms and being alone in them. 

Nicky remembers how she had lashed out when, a month after her return, she had come back into the safehouse two minutes after stepping out, a half step from a panic attack. When Nicky had helped her through it, giving her ice to chew on and helping her breath, she had explained in frustrated tears that while small spaces still terrified, apparently now, after over three years, suddenly big spaces were also not okay. 

Nicky had asked if Quynh wanted him to call Andy, but she shook her head.

“I’m not ready,” was all she said.

When Andy had been shot, three months later, it had been when her and Quynh had gone to a bakery to pick up some food and coffee, a way to ensure that Quynh could feel safer when she went out. The man had been trying to rob the bakery, was too nervous for what he was trying to do. 

When Andy was talking to Nicky about it, a week later, she mentioned that the last time she had heard Quynh scream that desperately had been when the men had grabbed her to put her in the iron coffin. The fight to get the gun out of the man’s hand was short, and Quynh won it neatly before decking the man. She’d rushed to Andy’s side, immediately moving to put pressure on the gunshot wound. 

Only to find there wasn’t one. 

Hadn’t that been a month. Andy's returned immortality aside, Quynh's fears of the outside had been justified by Andy being shot. 

But Quynh is here now. Has made it onto the ship and Andy had not left her side. They’re in a suite on the same hall as the target and will be the primary surveillance team. They’re also in charge of snooping around the target’s room if the opportunity arises. 

Quynh is wearing tailored, cream pants and a black turtleneck. She's cut off most of her hair and put waves in what’s left. Andy is now platinum blonde and wearing a black jumpsuit.

Nicky’s brought back the present again when Booker intentionally scrapes his fork across his plate. The sound makes shivers crawl up Nicky’s spine, but as much as he resents Booker for doing it, he has to stop forgetting he has a part to play.

Nicky does take a moment to wonder how Nile, Andy, and Quynh have all ended up looking more or less impeccable while he and Booker both have a style that screams ‘golfs on weekends and intentionally never sees his spouse’. 

His moustache itches, but his attention is caught by their mark finally entering the dining room. He’s a tall man, muscular, but from the gym, not due to his work being physically demanding. He’s older, for what that means to Nicky and the others, but still clearly goes to the gym at least five times a week.

Nicky is still staggered by the fact that there are at least thirty other restaurants on this ship, and yet the man dedicates himself to eating at the buffet every night. He taps his fingers to let Booker and Nile know that their target has appeared.

It’s not guaranteed that Gordon Janssens will sit down at either table, but the man apparently has three tables that he usually chooses from on this particular cruise. Between the five of them, they’ve staked out two, and the last one is already packed with a large group. 

Nicky focuses on his meal, taking out his phone and opening up the ship’s activity offerings page. It’s not his favourite thing, undercover stuff, but given that he and Joe are playing the role of a long married couple, there thankfully isn’t too much to actually play-act. 

Janssens is slowly making his way through the line, and Nicky puts away the image of the man picking up the exact same chicken dish that the woman had sneezed on earlier to share with Joe later. 

Minutes pass before a hand settles on the chair next to Nicky. 

“Do you mind if I sit here?” Nicky’s head pops up from looking at a news article. 

“Please! Go ahead. Sorry, let me move my jacket,” The man had managed to pick the spot that not only had Nicky’s jacket on it, but was also right next to Nicky despite there being three chairs between him and Booker on the side of the table nearest the buffet.

Janssens settles down, his polo marked with the logo of the shell company he pretends to work for. Quynh had said it looked like a dick and Joe’s head had snapped backwards with his laughter. 

“Gordon Janssens,” Janssens’ hand nearly ends up in Nicky’s dinner. The man is far too enthusiastic for what he does, but maybe that’s how he’s made it to where he is. 

“Enrico Caprio,” Nicky says, taking the man’s hand and giving it two firm shakes. He knows he’s meant to be chatty with Janssens, try and draw him into the conversation, but he wishes he didn’t have to. 

“Pleasure to meet you, Enrico. Where are you from? What brings you onto the cruise?” The man starts tucking into his dinner but maintains general eye contact with Nicky, so Nicky graciously puts his phone away.

“Italy. My husband and I took our honeymoon on this ship ten years ago. Our anniversary is tomorrow, and he said it would be nice to see if the boat was still in operation and to take a holiday if it was,” Nicky’s trying to look relaxed. He has no idea what kind of picture he makes with his mustache and grown out hair.

Nile had described it as “Paul Rudd from Anchorman”, and Nicky couldn’t even be annoyed because when she’d shown him the picture on her phone, she was right. 

Joe had actually struggled to kiss him that same night because he kept looking at Nicky and frowning at his mustache. 

“Did I ever tell you that I had a huge crush on Sam Elliot in the 70s?” Nicky smacks his husband’s arm.

“Don’t even joke about that,” Nicky says as Joe cackles. Nicky finally manages to reel the man in for a kiss.

“Besides,” Nicky mutters. “We both know you were obsessed with Enrico Caprio in the 70s,” Joe pushes his face away before Nicky can go in for a second kiss.

“I can’t believe you, you will never let me live that down,” Joe grudgingly permits Nicky to kiss him again, crinkling his nose as Nicky's facial hair rubs across Joe's upper lip.

“That is romantic,” Janssens smiles. “He must be a lucky man to have a husband so willing to indulge him.”

“I think I’m the lucky one. I insist on keeping the mustache and he doesn’t hate me for it,” Nicky lets his hand pass over his mustache as he smiles when Janssens falls into chuckles. 

“What about you?” Nicky asks, part of him wondering if Janssens is meeting anyone to cut a deal on the ship. 

“Belgium. I just like to get away from it all. I work in finance and this is my three weeks a year that I take holidays. I like to have everything taken care of for me.”

“Finance is a certainly difficult. I can’t say I know too much about it – I’m in sales,”

“And your husband?” 

“PhD student in Poetry.”

“How interesting! Although I've noticed that he has decided not to join us?”

“Hopefully recovering from a bout of seasickness. I tried to tell him that this is what happened the last time we got on a boat, but he’s stubborn that way,”

“It’s hard with partners, sometimes,” Janssens is halfway through his meal and Nicky is realising he’ll have to sit here while the man finishes it. 

“Not to cut in, but I thought I heard you mention your husband is suffering from seasickness? I might have something in my purse for that. I get car sick easily,” Nile is the best. 

“Thank you for the offer, it’s very kind of you. He’s got the medication, they’re just taking a while to kick in,” Nicky smiles at her.

“No problem at all,” Nile sticks her hand out. “Elena Lapage, nice to meet you. This is my husband Alphonse,” 

Both Nicky and Janssens shake Nile’s hand, and Janssens seems fascinated by Nile and Booker as well. He asks after their marriage, and Nile answers perfectly, Booker mentioning some things that Nile had probably mentioned to him as stuff she liked. 

It’s another forty-five minutes before Nicky begs off to check on his "Jakob", but not before Janssens manages to get everyone at the table to come for a few games of shuffleboard the next morning. Janssens is happy to team with Nicky if his husband is still ill, but it’s easy enough to find partners on the lanes if Jakob does join them. 

Nicky hustles out of the room as quickly as possible after agreeing.

*

When he gets back to the room, he’s glad to see Joe freshly showered and tucked into bed. He’s on his phone, probably texting Nile, but as soon as Nicky’s fully inside the room his face splits into a grin. 

“Shuffleboard Nicolo? Out of all the possible things he could convince you to do on a cruise ship this size, you give in to shuffleboard,” Nicky starts yanking off his polo shirt. 

“You’ll be joining me of course. There’s no way my now healthy husband could possibly miss out on a fun-filled day,” he turns to give Joe a long stare.

“Oh no, it seems I’m once again afflicted,” Joe says, putting a wobble in his voice. 

“Pretend all you like, it will not stop me from getting you out there,” Nicky moves into the bathroom, carefully removing the coloured contacts from his eyes and putting them into their plastic case. 

“Fine, but I make no promises to like it,” Joe sighs. “I guess that having sex with one half of a happy couple and playing shuffleboard are how these guys get off,” Nicky tries not to laugh while brushing his teeth. There’s a few minutes of silence as Joe continues to engage with the group chat.

“What is the chat saying right now anyway?” Nicky says, scrubbing his face with the face wash he and Joe share despite Joe’s best efforts. 

“Quynh is laughing about the shuffleboard but says that it’s a great opportunity for her and Andy to try and scope everything out. See if Janssens has any muscle with him, try and find out the surveillance situation,” Joe pauses. “I know this is a serious situation and that we’re all working, but I hope she and Andy get some actual non-mission time together.”

Nicky towels his face off and makes an affirmative sound. He reaches for his face lotion, rubbing some on as he moves back into the bedroom and changes into the pajama pants that Nile had gotten him for Christmas.

“I’m happy Quynh was able to come,” Joe finally says as Nicky gets into the bed.

“Me too,” Nicky sighs, pulling his own phone out. They spend a quiet hour on their phones texting Nile and Booker to ensure they’ve got everything squared away for shuffleboard tomorrow before turning off the light. They lay in silence, trying to ignore the fact that it’s only 9:00.

“Maybe we are old. Maybe we are meant to be on cruise ships like the octogenarians,” Yusuf whispers, panic entering his voice. 

“Absolutely not,” Nicky rolls over and puts his arms around Yusuf, smiling into the kiss as he starts trying to take a laughing Joe’s bottoms off.

They’re still asleep by 10:00.

*

The next morning Joe and Nicky get ready to head out to meet with Nile, Booker, and the mark to play shuffleboard. It’s Joe’s first appearance with Janssens, and he’s the PhD student to Nicky’s salesman. Nicky narrows his eyes when he sees Joe’s got on a tight, white t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. His curls have been buzzed short but unlike Nicky he looks good and Nicky is annoyed about it. When Joe catches Nicky’s eye, he grins.

It’s not fair because unlike Nicky, who is stuck with long hair, a mustache, a button-up shirt, and golf shorts, Joe had apparently decided that he was going to do what he wanted. He suddenly recalls the night before – how everyone but Booker and he had been dressed stylishly. He smells a plot, and when Joe’s eyes crinkle together at the strength of his smile, he knows he’s guessed right. 

“I spoke to Nile before we left for the trip about what we were going to wear. I packed your bag, and Nile packed Booker’s. Your fate, and Booker’s, was sealed before you realised,” he grabs the glasses that he will be wearing for his part and a soft cream sweater out of his bag, and Nicky has to tell himself that now is not the time to be getting hot over Joe wearing glasses. He is mad about Joe’s treachery. 

“Does Booker know?”

“You think that Booker would care that Nile had done this to him? He’s excited because Nile looks amazing and he gets to call her his wife,” Which, okay, Nicky can relate. 

“Nile took a lot of pictures of you for me, and I will cherish every one of them,” Yusuf moves back to his own suitcase. “Besides, I haven’t left you totally at sea,” he digs into his own suitcase and brings out a pair of pants. He walks over and hands them to Nicky before placing his hands on Nicky’s cheeks.

“You are still young, and you are not a golfer. You don’t need to wear those horrendous shorts to blend in. I’ve seen several younger men wearing these on the ship, you would not look out of place,” He kisses Nicky deeply, but backs off and makes a face. 

“God, I hate that thing. Take your pants off so we can get this mission over with and you can shave that stupid thing, God willing.”

Has Nicky ever not listened to his husband ask him to take his pants off? Why start now, he supposes.

*

When they make it to shuffle-board, Nile winks at Nicky. She’s got on a light summer dress with a sweater to go over it to combat the wind, and seems to have come clean to Booker, who still has to wear his cellphone on his belt, but who is in a much better outfit than he was the night previous. The worst part for Nicky is that Booker doesn’t seem upset at all. He looks positively thrilled to have been a part of a joke played by Nile and Joe. 

Nicky almost makes a sound of understanding when he realises that Booker must feel included by all of this. Like Joe may have started to forgive him and that Nile trusts him enough to play a prank. 

“Good morning!” Oh, how Nicky wishes he could forget that they were here for something other than reconciliation and amnesty. He grits his teeth, puts on his grimmest smile and turns around to face Gordon Janssens. 

“Morning Gordon, hope you slept well last night,” Nicky barely stops himself from biting out a ‘can’t wait until you sleep in a grave’.

“Very well! And I see your husband is able to join us this morning,” his hand reaches out to Joe, and it’s only then that Janssens seems to actually look at Joe. It’s a look that makes Nicky’s heart sink.

“Gordon Janssens. Your husband mentioned yesterday how he was a lucky man to have you, and I can certainly see why,” he gives Joe a clear up and down appreciative look.


	2. Starboard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe gets the chance to meet the mark, see Nicky in a bathing suit, and nearly start crying over a drink.

Joe is well acquainted with the look that Janssens sends him. He’s seen it many times over in the near millennia he’s lived, and the last time had been from a man who’d ended up meeting the sharp end of Nicky's sword. 

Joe wonders if it will be a similar outcome this time. 

“Jakob Bakker. Thank you very much for the compliment,” Joe says amiably, and he can feel how tense Nico is beside him. “I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”

“I’m glad. It’s rare that someone catches my eye. Your husband really is a lucky man,” Janssens says it like Nicky isn’t standing right next to them, just keeps his eyes locked to Joe’s. All Joe can think is that this man has no idea how out of his depth he is.

“He is, isn’t he,” Joe removes his hand from Janssens' and reaches for Nicky, who already has his hand out to grab Joe’s. Joe sees the micro-expression of annoyance on Janssens’ face in response, but the man seems to find himself, turning away to say good morning to Booker and Nile.

Joe squeezes Nicky’s hand, idly standing by as Janssens makes small talk with the “Lapages”. He finally pipes up when he can tell that Nicky has worked through the bulk of his annoyance and there’s a lull in the conversation.

“Shall we play shuffle-board?” Joe says, and it spurs Booker into clearing his throat and reaching for the wallet in his back pocket. 

“Are you a gambling man Gordon?” 

While Yusuf is not enthused about the circumstances that he is now in, he is pleased at the speed at which they’ve occurred. The group of them had hoped that one of them would catch Janssens’ attention, given his affinity (borderline obsession) for going after married couples, but that it showed up so quickly? Yusuf doesn’t want to jinx their good fortune and can only hope that he continues to keep the organ-trafficker’s attention. 

Nicky is not happy, obviously, but Janssens' interest in Joe means that their shuffleboard outing will be one of many opportunities to get Janssens away from wherever his laptop is. If Andy and Quỳnh have already made some headway on getting into the man’s room without setting off any alarms, they could be done this stupid mission faster than expected and actually enjoy the rest of their holiday. 

“How about you, Jakob, any bets you’d like to lay down?” Janssens is looking at Joe like he wants to eat him. Joe knows he’s more than this man can chew.

“Apologies, but I’m not a gambling man. You’ll have to rely on Alphonse and my husband to fill your pockets,” he flashes a grin at Nicky who rolls his eyes as he places some cash in the clipboard used to keep track of scores. 

Despite the bets getting dealt with quickly, they spend twenty minutes bringing in another person and organising the round robin. Nicky and Joe graciously sitting out to allow Booker and Nile to play the first round against Janssens and his partner. 

There are benches on the side of the lane, and Nicky and Joe take a seat next to each other. Joe immediately turning to Nicky, his hand reaching out to grip Nicky’s knee. He uses his body language to hide their faces. 

He’s portraying the image of a man trying to convince his husband that he doesn’t need to get angry at the guy who was being overly flirtatious. 

“ _I hate him,_ ” Nicky says before Joe can say anything, the quick pace of Calabrian Occitan revealing how peeved he is. Joe struggles not to laugh.

“ _But what an opportunity, especially so fast. It opens up three of you to help Andy and Quỳnh, if it’s even necessary. Means that I just spend a few minutes with this asshole, and we get an opportunity,_ ” staring into Nicky’s eyes is bizarre when he has his coloured contact lenses in. 

“ _I don’t like that man even breathing near you,_ ” Nicky’s eyes narrow. “ _I have faith in you, but if that nothing of a man does anything to you, I will set him on fire,_ ”.

“ _Do we play the happy couple as a united front against the man? Or do you prefer that we act as though our relationship is fraught - something from a telenovela that Nile and Quỳnh watch?_ ” Joe should probably be taking this more seriously, but it's hard not to tease Nicky when he glare at Joe has him biting back a smile. “ _Whatever we decide, it has to be before we hit the first port three days from now,_ ” Yusuf lets his hand move to Nicky’s arm, his thumb drifting over Nicky’s wrist a couple of times.

“ _We will be happy. Maybe that will give him more satisfaction, maybe take up some time,_ ” Nicky’s eyes narrow. “ _I can’t wait to finish this. Then we will get off this ship and I will find you a nice beach and you can wear those sunglasses you like,_ ” Nicky looks annoyed that they can’t be there now. 

“ _I want to eat sfogliatelle in Napoli,_ ”

“ _Please do not make me go to Napoli. I would rather die,_ ” 

“ _So dramatic, Nicolò. I’m willing to go to somewhere in Calabria but you better find me a good flaky dessert and a beach. I bought new swim shorts,_ ” Nicky looks intrigued by Joe’s final declaration. Then he squeezes Joe’s hands three times – their code. 

‘I. Love. You.’

“You are from the Netherlands Jakob? Whereabouts?” Right, Janssens. Joe draws away from Nicky and puts on a genial smile, hoping it’s convincing. 

“Den Haag, although I’ve been living in Italy for over twelve years,” 

“ _In the North or South?_ ” Janssens asks in Flemish, a language he seems to be assuming no one but Yusuf is likely to understand. Clearly Janssens is simply trying to pull a power move.

“In Bologna, I study at the university,” Yusuf answers in English, not interested in playing this game if he doesn’t have to. 

“ _That’s where you met your husband?_ ” Janssens asks, lining up his shot.

“It was. I met him in first year of university. We married two years later in Den Haag,” 

“ _So young?_ ” He slides the biscuit down the lane, it lands on the line between eight and ten – worth 0 points, Yusuf notes smugly. 

“I knew when I met him that he was the one,” Joe had known that Nicolò was the one when they met. Eventually. It had just taken a little while for the two of them to realise they were each other's one.

“ _I have to say it’s amazing, almost a miracle, that your relationship has lasted so long,_ ” Janssens states, seeming to pout over his lost points.

“I am a fortunate man,” Yusuf says, and meets Janssens’ eyes directly, smiling.

*

When it’s Joe and Nicky’s turn to play, Joe debates on whether or not it would be better to stand next to Janssens during their games or on the opposite side of the board. By the time he’s made a decision, Nicky’s already maneuvered himself into taking the end next to the man, muttering about what person in his right mind would allow their partner to stand next to someone who had so blatantly hit on them. 

The woman on Joe’s side is lovely. At 85 years old, she'd introduced herself as Alicia. When Joe moves next to her, she remarks on how wonderful it is to be playing next to such a lovely young man. Joe laughs and jokes with her, discusses classical music, and compares the atmosphere of their side of the lane to their teammates. Nicky, who has the stare of an animal about to bite, standing next to a sulking Janssens who’d clearly hoped that Joe would be next to him.

By the end, it’s Booker and Nile who come out victorious – probably because Janssens’ presence is shaking Nicky’s normally unshakeable ‘vibe’, as Nile had called it, and Janssens’ partner is an 85 year old with a bad hip. Janssens does ask about another round, but Joe and Nicky beg off, saying their goodbyes to him, Alicia, and Mr. and Mrs. “Lapage”, before they head off for a late lunch.

“We could go to the buffet if you wanted?” Joe asks, grinning when Nicky sends him a look. 

“We will be doing no such thing. We will find the restaurant furthest away from that man,” Nicky grumbles.

“And then swimming?”

“And then swimming.” 

*

They end up not being able to go swimming immediately because Quỳnh texts them that someone had gone into their room while they were gone and planted cameras. Nicky had placed their own cameras in the room when they’d arrived, and she’d clearly been on watch while Andy put together a plan of attack. Quỳnh then tells the two of them to make themselves useful and go for a walk. 

So now, instead of swimming, they’re stuck wandering around the cruise, hoping to figure out if they’ve got tails, and if so, how many. 

It’s not necessarily a bad walk. Joe gets to hold Nicky’s hand, and it’s a great opportunity to figure out where stuff is: The casino, the restaurant where they have their ‘anniversary’ dinner planned, the cinema (Joe jokes about going in for a matinee and making out in the back row, but had backed down at the heated look that Nicky had sent him).

Joe really only feels sad about the fact that he has to wait to see Nicky in his swim trunks. That he isn’t sipping a drink in a deck chair and watching the man do lengths, powerful shoulders gleaming in the sun. 

“ _I’ve counted two, you?_ ” Nicky says, and Joe smiles at him and leans in to press a kiss to his cheek.

“ _Three. You missed the one on the bench over there, he’s got cop shoes on,_ ” Joe lets his lips linger on Nicky’s jaw, grinning at the annoyance on his man’s face as Nicky realises who he missed. Nicky is clearly still off his game from this morning.

“ _So we know there’s at least three of Janssens’ people on board,_ ” Nicky states, humming as Joe lets go of Nicky’s hand and puts his arm around his waist. 

“ _Likely at least another two with Janssens. With our luck it will be four,_ ” Joe whispers as he leans in to press a kiss to Nicky’s shoulder. Nicky's shirt makes him think about the minor prank he pulled with Nile; how Nile had grinned when Joe had presented the idea to her. Joe’s happy they did it, but almost happier not see the offensive company polo gracing Nicky’s torso and instead a button up with a light jacket. 

“They probably come in pairs too, so let’s err on the side of caution and say eight. He must be someone important because eight people starts to get difficult to hide,” Joe has to smile when Nicky speaks Tmazight, the immediate warmth it sparks in his chest, bringing long faded memories of his mother, his father, his sisters; the house they lived in with a warm, wood front door and rooms with walls covered in various objects his father liked (although his mother regularly told her children it was just garbage he had taken a fancy to). It's more of a feeling now than actual recollection, but the spark is still there. 

Sometimes, Joe fills pages of his sketchbooks with patterns that he thinks he remembers, and colours that remind him of things that are long gone from his memory.

“Enough to make our lives difficult, hm?” Joe responds in kind. They’re still mumbling, hoping that a combination of different languages and whispering will be enough to make understanding them or lip-reading frustrating if not impossible. They are more careful than Janssens careless assumptions that no one else spoke Flemish. Nicky and Joe whisper, speak in code, pick obscure languages, and swap dialects.

Joe grabs his phone out of his pocket, carefully scrolling down to _Dancing Queen_ 💚💚💚 and opening the conversation. Nicky’s head falls on his shoulder, bringing their hips closer and casually blocking any view their stalkers might get of the screen. 

Joe’s last message to Nile had been a string of emojis in response to a “sir this is a Wendy’s” that Nile had sent. He swipes 'Any luck? We’ve got 3.' across his keyboard before hitting enter.

It takes a moment, but Nile responds: 'Some. They have two people outside his door, so we still don’t know if he has any cameras in his room. Progress though. You can probably head back.'

Not using the group-chat to get information around is slower than using it would be, but it keeps the possibility of them being found out as a group lower. Nile will tell Booker and then he’ll text Quỳnh or Andy. They'd all agreed to restrict group chat usage to when they are all in their rooms, and even then, messages should be erased before leaving the room. 

Just like switching languages: Aim to minimize the information that can be linked together. 

" _I’m shocked that he spared three men just to follow two people who he assumes are civilians,_ ” Joe says as he slips his phone into his back pocket. 

“It’s because you are too much man,” Nicky doesn’t look at Joe as he delivers the line, but his hand squeezes Joe's hip revealingly. The laugh comes out of Joe before he can stop himself, taken completely off guard. 

“I can’t believe I reward you for such a bad line. Honestly,” Joe links their hands together more firmly. “Swimming now?”

“Swimming now.”

*

The pool is spectacular, and while it had been annoying to know they were being watched while they changed, it hadn’t stopped Joe or Nicky from putting their hands all over each other. Nicky had been disappointed that Joe hadn’t brought his new shorts, but the risk of having to leave them behind on a quick getaway was too high.

Now, however, Joe is laid out next to the pool with a book in his hands, comfortable in the knowledge that a fruity drink is coming his way via his husband. He smiles when a drink touches down on the side table next to him.

“ _Thank you, gorgeous,_ ” the Italian rolls off his tongue as he looks up, expecting to find Nicky and sorely disappointed. Joe barely hides the disbelief on his face that Janssens has bothered to find them at the pool after leaving them behind only three hours ago.

“ _Only now I get to hear you speaking a different language? I’ll consider myself thankful,_ ” The man is still speaking Flemish as though it’s going to impress Joe. Joe’s eyes flick to the bar and sees Nicky still waiting for their drinks. He’s surveying the pool, but Joe knows he’s already clocked Janssens’ arrival.

Joe sits up on the lounger as Janssens stalks around him to sit in Nicky’s deck chair. He knocks the towel that Nicky had set on the end of the chair to the ground. 

Like a child or a cat, is all Joe can think.

“I didn’t realise that you’d be coming down to the pool today,” Joe says, allowing his book to close around his finger. 

“ _Maybe not to swim, but I do enjoy the view,_ ” Janssens’ eyes sweep over Joe’s body – lingering at certain spots. There’s no drink in his hand to match the one he’d set down for Joe.

“This may come off as rude, but I’m sure you’ll understand that I was hoping to get some alone time with my husband?” Nicky has likely fired off a text Booker to let him know that the mark is with them. He’ll start looking for Janssens’ hangers-on after sending the message.

“ _Of course, but I just saw you and thought getting you a drink might be a nice thing to do. It would be a shame if you decided not to take a drink from someone who’s just being nice to you,_ ” his eyes have not left the area below Joe’s neck. Honestly, you’d think romance was dead. 

“Thank you, I’ll enjoy it alongside the drink my husband is bringing back for me,” Joe is about to turn back to what he’s doing when Janssens speaks again.

“ _I am simply trying to be kind. I’m sure Enrico,_ ” Joe has to remind himself that that’s Nicky’s cover. Wouldn't that be a way to fuck this mission up. “ _Understands that I’m a man trying to appreciate something beautiful. Your husband must understand that? Surely he knows how lucky he is that his partner is receiving so much attention,_ ” Janssens pauses. “ _If he doesn’t then it’s a shame. I’m sorry that you don’t get the appreciation you deserve because of him,_ ” he stands up and makes a move as though he’s about to put his hand on Joe’s arm, brushing the air a few centimetres from Joe’s skin. Joe has to stop himself from breaking the man’s hand. 

“I like a challenge, Jakob. I’m sure you will come to welcome the effort I put into making sure the people I like feel wanted,” he walks away before Joe can say anything else.

Truly, Joe thinks, what does this man think normal people would do with that kind of speech? Probably call the police. He’s interrupted when Nicky arrives, and while he doesn’t slam the drinks down on the table between their chairs, as his hands pulls away from them he does ‘accidentally’ spill the entirety of the drink Janssens had brought ‘Jakob’. 

“ _You are alright?_ ” Nicolò murmurs in hurried Ligurian. “ _I swear I’m going to kill that man and enjoy it,_ ” 

“ _He didn’t do anything. Just more talking – the man loves to hear himself speak,_ ” Joe says, setting his book down and reaching out to grab the drink that he actually wants. Nicky got extra strawberries around the rim for him and there’s two cocktail umbrellas. Joe immediately takes one out and tucks it behind his ear, mourning his curls as a better vessel. 

“I can’t believe how insufferable he is,” Nicky grouches, picking up the plastic glass from the spilled drink. It gives Joe an opportunity to fold himself back into the lounger and pick his book up again. 

“The good news, love, is that he’s gone now, and we can continue to enjoy the afternoon.” He looks at Nicky’s skin and hums happily. “After I put some sunscreen on you.”

*

When they enter their room, it’s with the smiles and laughs of a couple deeply in love who have enjoyed a day in the sun – not a far cry from Malta, but with the low hanging fog of knowing that they are likely being watched. 

Joe kisses Nicky, telling him how much fun he had rubbing lotion on him. Janssens will probably watch this footage later, and the vindictive part of Joe likes that the man has to suffer from afar. 

“I need a shower. I’m sticky and my skin’s drying out from chlorine,” Nicky complains, already stripping off his swimming trunks, and all Joe can think is how happy he is that public nudity has never bothered them. 

“I’ll join you. What if you need help washing your back?” Joe says. Nicky’s laugh echoes in the bathroom.

“You are more than welcome to. The shower’s small, but I’m sure the two of us can fit,”

They spend the shower leisurely trading kisses, Nicky telling Joe that they still have a dinner to get to. 

“He makes me uncomfortable,” Joe says, carefully rubbing body lotion into his skin and reminding himself that the character he’s playing would probably have something to say about this.

“Who? The Dutch asshole? If he tries anything again, I’m going to the shipboard security. He’s popping up everywhere, and to be honest we should have gone already,” Nicky says as he slips into his button-up. Joe is still getting used to the long hair and the moustache, but, horrifyingly, it’s starting to grow on him.

Joe misses his own hair. Maybe he’ll grow it longer than he’d had it before he buzzed it for this mission.

“Maybe he’s just lonely. You mentioned that he started talking to you as soon as he sat down with you at the dinner buffet, right? Maybe he just wants someone to talk to,” Joe shrugs his shirt on as he says it.

“He can do that without hitting on another man’s husband, and, more importantly, without harassing you.” 

“I don’t think there’s anything he can offer me that I don’t get from you, love,” Joe leaves his shirt unbuttoned as he grabs Nicky by the hand and tugs him in for a kiss. When it ends, Nicky looks him in the eyes and says in Ligurian:

“ _He can try, but I know you will be with me until the end,_ ” and if that didn’t make Yusuf melt, he would be a cold man indeed. Although, as Nicky's lips meet his, he'd probably find a way to warm up.

*

When they make it to their reservation, they’re nearly late, but they’ve barely sat down with their complimentary glasses of champagne bubbling away when a server arrives with a bottle of Krug Clos du Mesnil. 

She makes direct and uneasy eye contact with Joe and says:

“Compliments of Mr. Janssens,” she doesn’t look at Nicky for even a moment. Joe has to look around before he spots Janssens, who lifts his own glass of champagne. Apparently, he had decided that this was the only night he was going to skip the buffet. 

If only this man knew, Yusuf thinks, as he moves back to look at the bottle and allows himself to reminisce. The memory of Nicky and him in Mesnil-sur-Oger when the fields were first enclosed has yet to fade like so many others and it’s one of Joe’s most treasured ones – When Nicky, truly into his cups and in the middle of a field of grapes, had proclaimed loudly and at length his love for the man sitting in front of him. 

That memory alone would have put champagne in Joe's good books, but this brand of champagne especially, makes the drink a favourite of his. 

It had been two hundred years after Nicky’s messy love sonnets in the fields when Krug had come up with this variety of bubbly. Nicky had still been embarrassed by his efforts at showing Joe his love (despite Joe repeatedly telling him that he held that night close to his heart), and so had decided that promoting a drink that Joe loved, made in a place of importance to Joe, would be a gift to help 'improve the memory', in Nicky's words.

Joe hadn't thought anything had needed improving, but Nicky had nonetheless (under an assumed name) become a partner in Krug’s business.

Two hundred years later and the company that Nicky had helped start as a dedication to his love was still in operation. 

The idiot sitting at the table and looking at Joe as though he’s gotten one up over Joe’s husband by sending them a 2000 Euro bottle of champagne has accidentally reminded Joe of two of the most romantic things Nicky has ever done for him. 

“Oh, we couldn’t possibly accept, that’s far too kind of him,” Joe says. He allows his eyes to flick to Nicky, who currently has the look of a man so livid he can't speak.

Joe couldn’t miss the smugness in his eyes if he tried.

“He said you might say that, but absolutely insisted that he help you celebrate your love,” the server smiles uncomfortably before working to open the bottle. Joe half hopes that when the cork pops it will go pinging around the room and hit Janssens. Instead, the cork comes out just fine, leaving the server to take two new glasses out; carefully pouring both of them a new glass. She then sets the champagne aside and whisks their two complementary drinks off the table. 

Joe tries to look as unsure as possible about this whole thing, but it’s difficult when he remembers Nicky, lit by moonlight, slurring out how unbelievable it was to him that he had been blessed by Yusuf’s presence and loveliness.

He picks up his glass, nods tentatively at Janssens, and leans across the table as though he’s trying to convince his husband to please not ruin the evening just because some jackass has decided to one-up him on their wedding anniversary. 

“ _I cannot wait until we get back to the room. I don’t care how many cameras are looking at us, I will ravish you until neither of us can move,_ ” Joe whispers in Darija.

Nicky looks back at him, appropriately mad, but a grin nearly splits Joe’s face at the twitching at the corner of his mouth as Nicolò desperately tried to keep a smile in.

“ _I cannot believe that of all the champagnes he could have picked, he managed to give us this,_ ” he makes direct eye contact with Joe. “ _I love you, and while I still cringe when I think of us in that field, three empty bottles of wine and me, so drunk I was barely standing. It brings me joy to know you are happy and that I can continue to try and make you happy,_ ” Nicky speaks Darija back hushed tones while his hands moving emphatically. 

“ _I loved seeing you so open about how you felt for me. Your head in my lap because you couldn’t hold it up anymore, mumbling your way through some poetry and telling me that no language was sufficient to describe how lovely I was,_ ” Joe feels like he may be near tears talking about this, but even if he is, he’s sure it sells the whole thing – a man trying to salvage his anniversary.

“ _Love, I cannot wait to spend another thousand years with you,_ ” Nicky whispers.

Joe backs off, desperately clinging to some manner of dignity. They cannot kiss – the tense atmosphere they are working to build won’t allow it. Joe allows his eyes to linger on Nicky’s lips long enough to pass a kiss through the air, but Nicky ignores it all, picks Joe's hand up and presses a kiss to his knuckles, over his ring finger. He makes direct eye contact with Joe when he does it.

Joe’s heart thuds as he moves to hold up the champagne glass: “To us. I love you and I cannot wait to spend another ten years with you beloved.”

Nicky’s hands raise up his own glass.

“To us.”

They drink. 

*

When they finally get to bed that night, they don’t watch the footage from the cameras. Instead they turn the lights out in the bare hope of getting some privacy and they make love in the dark. 

Joe has no idea whether there have been any microphones planted, but it is in this moment that he’s happy that their cover is barely that.

His lets his hands drift across Nicky’s shoulders, his chest, his jaw, and he says I love you with every touch. He kisses as deeply as he can, and Nicky replies in kind, spelling out his love on Joe’s skin, his hand gripping Joe’s and squeezing three times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for how long this took to get up. I have been tossed around by school and had barely any time to write, and when I had time to work on this there was a scene that got added and a bunch of stuff that got changed so it took a bit longer. Thank you very much for your patience.
> 
> We get Yusuf's POV for this chapter. I am still working on characterisation, so we will have to see, and it's also pretty late when I post this so who knows how coherent it is.


	3. Capsize

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe and Nicky have a slow morning that ends with them having a not so slow morning.

The next morning, Nicky wakes up before Joe does and crawls out of bed to grab their laptop. There hadn’t been any news from Quỳnh about anyone tampering with it, so he’s confident when he opens it up and checks the email and their camera recordings. Joe stirs a bit, but only to get closer to Nicky, sighing when Nicky reaches down to rub a hand over his hair. 

Nicky’s got the video footage on 2x speed, an email already sent off to Copley, and seven tabs worth of apartment listings on various beach fronts in Calabria when Joe groans and gives a proper stretch, his face smushed into Nicky’s hip but clearly awake.

“Did you have some work that came in this morning, love?” Joe mumbles.

“Just updating my parents on our trip so far,” Nicolò hums. He leaves Joe to take over watching the video, and they’re quiet in their respective tasks until Joe nudges him. Nicky immediately swaps the video to 1x speed and lets his eyes scan the footage.

Just as Quỳnh mentioned, a man enters the room, the time stamp saying about half-an-hour after they’d left for shuffleboard. He’s got a staff uniform on, but there’s no reason for him to be there, as he isn’t part of the custodial staff. 

The man places something in behind their tv and something in the corner of a painting that oversees the whole room. He then enters the bathroom, gets up on the counter and puts something in behind the medicine cabinet, and another thing up in the corner of the bathroom. 

How he’d missed the bugs that Nicky had placed, Nicky doesn’t know. He can probably attribute it to the fact that the man wouldn’t have been looking for them. 

He leaves without adding anything else. From the placement of the devices, there’s two cameras and two microphones. 

Nicky clicks the speed up again, going back to his email and letting the footage play through for Joe. How many times have he and Joe been in bed together in the morning, Nicky already up for at least half an hour but happy to find something they can both do while Joe wakes up, always slower to rise. 

Nicky doesn’t know the quality of the bugs that Janssens’ had planted, but when he watches Joe and himself stumble into the room before and after swimming, and then again after dinner, he hopes that the idiot was watching them; looking at what he’ll never have. Nicky is excited in a medieval way for the look when Janssens realises that he was never going to get what he wanted.

Of course, what the cameras have also meant is Nicky needing to be more careful about when and where he takes his contacts out, and Joe doing the same with how he acts without his glasses on. 

Joe reads his mind: “Tesoro can you pass me my glasses, I think they ended up on your side table after last night,” and Nicky leans over to grab them. 

“What shall we do today, besides avoid Janssens? I have some work to do this morning, but not too much,” Nicky says, which, if planning for a vacation is work? He slouches down so he can press a kiss to the top of Joe’s head after Joe puts the glasses on his side table, humming.

“They have the movie theatre, mini-golf,” Joe’s voice is still rough with sleep, and that voice mixed with his suggestion yesterday of making out in the back row of the theatre? Nicky shakes his head and reminds himself that he must be on top of things. There’s time for that later.

Later. 

Joe clears his throat, lets his thumb drift up to Nicky’s hip bone, “I might spend some time drawing today if you’ve got some work to do”

“Breakfast first maybe?” Nicky asks. Yusuf nods, but doesn’t bother to get up, instead pulling Nicky down into a slow kiss. 

Ten minutes later, Joe finally removes himself from Nicky’s space, climbing out of bed and immediately stripping off his underwear. 

“I’m taking a shower, and then I’m going for a walk. I’ll find breakfast and bring it back. Was there anything you wanted in particular?” Nicky is distracted by the crease where Joe’s ass meets the tops of his thigh.

Joe’s hand waves in front of his face and Nicky realises he’s been asked a question. “Whatever you bring back will be fine. Just please-,”

“Coffee, I know,” and Nicky smiles as he hits send on the email to Nile with a picture of the man who was in their room yesterday. 

Ten minutes later and Joe’s out of the shower, but it’s only after he’s moisturised that he finally picks up his phone. Nicky has been lazily tabbing through available apartments in Napoli.

“Why have I got twenty-five messages that have come in in the past five minutes. What kind of crisis could there be on my vacation?” he’s mumbling as he gets into his phone, casually standing to make sure the cameras won’t catch his code. Nicky watches as he scrolls, stops dead at a message and then starts laughing.

It takes a bit before he hands Nicky the phone, his messages with Nile open.

_None of us is ever allowed to plan anything ever again_

_I can’t believe no one thought about just having someone dress up like room cleaning staff to go through the room_

_I’m disallowing everyone from doing anything ever again ever_

Followed by about eight memes, one of them with two dogs, one with a weirdly muscular human torso and the other crying.

When Nicky check his phone, his chat with Quỳnh is just pictures of Andy with her head in her hands. Truly everyone in this group truly has a poor grasp of operational security, Nicky thinks with despair. 

Joe makes an affronted noise, passing his phone off again, Nile’s texts having recovered from her collection of memes. 

_By the way you guys suck at faking being a couple that’s mad about something_

_I watched you yesterday and I don’t think I’ve ever been less convinced of anything than that N was mad at any point of that dinner last night he was literally too busy looking at you and being SMUG_

Nicky can't argue with that

 _I heard about your champagne thing and reel it IN!_ 🙄🙄🙄

_Also love you and we’ve got pretty firm numbers on eight. The guy that got into your room showed up as part of what’s-his-faces morning guard._

They are going to have to cleanse Joe’s phone of these messages. 

“It’s good to know that your colleagues are so professional,” Nicky smiles, deleting messages before handing the phone back to Joe.

Joe smiles as he takes it. “You know exactly how professional they are given you’ve been to the New Years party.”

Boy does Nicky know that. Last New Years, there’d been so much champagne and Joe had gotten exceptionally amorous and demanding. Nicky still can’t look at those stupid new year glasses without getting flushed.

Joe goes to grab his normal, fake glasses off the side table and get the rest of his things ready. They’ve got two days left before hitting the first port and with the plan of action being what it is, they’re starting to hit crunch time.

“I think I’m going to spend some time sketching before I bring back breakfast. You’re okay to find some for yourself yes? Or can you wait until I get back?” Joe starts shuffling through their clothing. Now that Joe’s come clean about the clothes, the golf shorts have all been relegated to Nicky’s suitcase and the clothing they’re actually pulling from is all in Joe’s. Joe had even packed the pants Nicky has that zip off at the knee to make shorts. 

“I have a couple more emails I’d like to get done, then I thought I’d check out the rest of the ship. I can grab breakfast then. We were so worried about last night’s dinner that we didn’t do much planning beyond it,” 

“Worked out well, I think. I know you were mad about the champagne, but it was still nice for Gordon to order it for us. I hope it didn’t cost him too much,” Nicky will die with how happy he is to get such a nice bottle of champagne for free while also likely getting to kill Janssens eventually. 

Nicky is distracted again when Joe gets jeans and a black t-shirt on, carefully tucking the top into his jeans before sitting down to cuff them and adding a pair of socks and shoes. He pulls on a pink sweater that he tucks the front of into the jeans as well. Nicky feels his jaw flex, Joe looks so sweet in this outfit that Nicky wants to mess him up.

“I’m still not impressed at all by him. You’ve got your cellphone, right? Text me when you’re ready to meet back up again – maybe for lunch? I wonder if we can find Elena and Alphonse somewhere; we should try and do a few more activities with them,” Nicky’s left his computer alone, gazing at Joe as he speaks. “And for the love of god text me if Janssens bothers you again? I missed him at the pool and I really need to do something about him.”

“Sounds good, if I spot them, I’ll ask,” Joe leans down to give Nicky a peck on the lips before hitching his satchel up on his shoulder, heading out the door. “I’ll let you know about Janssens as well. Try not to get us kicked off the ship at the first port we reach?”

“I make no promises. We should have gone to security off the top, but I know that you don’t want to start anything,”

Joe smiles again and blows him a kiss from the door.

“Hate to watch you go but love to watch you leave,” Nicky says, smiling at the laugh Joe lets out while the door closes behind him. 

*

Nicky gets the text that Janssens is on the move about ten minutes after Joe leaves, which is perfect because Nile, Quỳnh, and Andy are about to draw straws on who’s going to get into Janssens room and scope the place out while dressed as the cleaning service. It means that he should probably get moving soon, if only to get some of Janssens' people out of the way and following him. He clicks through the payment screen for the reservation at a beautiful Napoli hotel with a spectacular view of the water and puts in Janssens credit card information. Janssens will probably get a call from someone about using his card, but if Nicky can get it cancelled while Janssens is on a cruise with no easy access to new card, then it’s a job well done. He’ll put the payment through properly later.

Work done, he stretches and starts to get himself ready for the day. He still hasn’t heard anything from Quỳnh about who’s going in, but he’ll get the story later.

*

Nicky’s walking by the mini putt course when he spots Booker sitting in one of the restaurants (but if restaurants were designed by people who’d had them described only via voice). Booker’s got an enormous coffee, likely half-finished from the way he looks like he’s about to vibrate out of his seat, and Nicky could ignore him. Is unsure himself of how he wants to play this out.

His phone is in his hand, the conversation with _Tesoro_ 💝 open

_Alphonse is here. He’s alone._

He’s not asking permission to interact with Booker. Rather, he and Yusuf are partners in all things; they are a wall and together provide both a united front and support for one another.

 _Talk to him if you want, love. It will take me a while, still, but there’s nothing you can do about that. Love you_ 💕

Nicky knows they’ll talk about this again when everything’s over, and at this point Nicky's not sure if he'll even talk to Booker again after this. He may simply slide this occasion into the “it was for a mission” pile. 

Booker sees Nicky when he walks into the shop and raises his hand. Watches him as Nicky orders the smallest and strongest coffee he can. 

“Do you mind if I sit, Alphonse? Or are you waiting for your wife?”

Nicky, and Booker probably, can both tell that the two men that are nearby are settling in for some surveillance.

“No, no she’s gone off to do her own thing for a bit. Said she’d meet for lunch,” Booker smiles, but it’s tight in the corners, like he doesn’t know what to expect from Nicky sitting with him instead of avoiding him. 

“My husband did the same. Said he was going to do some sketching, and that he’d text me for lunch. Would you and Elena like to join us? Jakob mentioned wanting to do more activities with the both of you, although I will likely avoid gambling this time given how thoroughly you emptied my pockets when we played shuffle board,” Nicky watches as Booker takes a long drink.

“I’m sure we’d be happy to, if your husband wants us there?” Booker is fishing but he’s never been good at it. 

“Jakob made sure to promise me he’d speak to you if he found you. We’d both be happy to have you and your wife with us. I may go do something else for a bit, but if you want to exchange numbers, we can get in contact with one another?” Booker hesitantly holds out his phone. Neither Nicky nor Joe have his number in their phones as an independent text chain. 

Nicky puts in 'Enrico Caprio' alongside the dummy number he'd received from Copley.

He should stay longer, it's probably weird that he doesn't, but Nicky doesn't know what to say to Booker, or his alias. Instead, he finishes his coffee, stands up, and says: “We’ll see you later. I’ll mention it to Jakob. Let us know where your wife,” and there, easier to spot this time – the word that makes Booker perk up like a watered flower. “Wants to eat and we’ll be happy to join you,” Nicky pushes his chair in, picking up his cup to return to the counter. 

Booker gives a wave: “See you later Enrico,” and Nicky ducks his head in goodbye. 

*

When Nicky returns to the room an hour and a half later, he’s a little surprised Joe isn’t back, but figures that the ocean caught his attention and Nicky will find a sketchbook stuffed full of pictures. Likely even more so now that Joe has a set of watercolour pencils and a water pen that Quỳnh had gifted him with. 

He checks his computer and finds an email with the complete schematics of Janssens room along with the locations of various cameras. Whoever had done the ones in Janssens room must have been new, as there look to be plenty of blind spots in the living area and absolutely no cameras in the bedroom. When he texts his surprise to Quỳnh, she says that apparently there’s no cameras, but there is an enormous mirror on the ceiling above his bed. 

Nicky has to pinch the bridge of his nose and refrain from sighing as loudly as he can. 

He continues to read the email and smirks when Quỳnh mentions that one of the outlook bodyguards was talking about Janssens complaining about his credit card being compromised, and how he’ll be without one until they can reach the next port. Truly Nicky’s good deed of the day. 

He’s about to text Joe when his love bursts into the door looking harassed and upset and Nicky wonders where his gun is because he needs one. 

“What happened? I swear to God Jakob what happened?” Joe’s got his satchel off and is already in Nicky’s arms. 

“You won’t believe me…” Joe says tightly but Nicky grabs him more tightly. 

“I promise I will. I promise. What happened, I swear…” 

“I was sitting on one of the benches that looks out over the ocean. I was nowhere near anything of interest to anyone. I just had my sketchbook out and some tea, the coffee here is horrific, and I swear Enrico, I don’t know how he knew to find me because it’s bizarre that anyone could find me where I was,” Nicky knows where this is going.

“Janssens found you,” Joe nods, his eyes tight with worry. 

“I don’t know how. I haven’t spoken to him since we saw him at the pool and it’s freaking me out. How the fuck did he find me?”

Nicky knows there’s something else. Something that genuinely shook Joe. “What else happened? It was more than that, I can tell. What was it Giacobbe?”

“He sat down next to me. Started to go on about how nice he was being to me, how I needed to give him a shot, needed to leave you alone for a bit so you knew how good I was for you. I turned him down, I swear on my life I turned him down,”

“I know you did,” Nicky says, and whatever it was that set Joe on edge now has Nicky’s brain treating this scenario more seriously than he has been. 

“And then he pulled a knife on me, and told me that if I wanted to keep you, then I’d have to be with him, because he owns half this ship anyway and, Enrico, he said he would kill you if I didn’t go with him, said he'd kill me if I went to anyone with this, but he'd take my heart out first,” Joe's brow is creased with worry, his eyes frantic.

Nicky feels cold fury run like ice through him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I've been giving Nicky a lot of emotional stuff that Joe hasn't gotten yet, but that will change with the next chapter hopefully.
> 
> Ahh apologies for the shorter chapter. I will say that there is a possibility of this fic going to five chapters but I'm not going to change it until I know for sure.


	4. Underway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe finally manages to get things moving along in the right direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: So this is the chapter where most of the tags come in. In terms of the last tag, there are more details in the end notes if you want it but I've marked the scene out with ~*~ if you want to skip it

Joe leaves Nicky in bed and heads towards the restaurants on the ship, grabbing something for breakfast out of a little coffee shop on the 5th deck. He’d gone with tea instead of coffee, very much not up to muscling down a sub-par drink, as well as a couple of pastries. It takes him a bit, but he does eventually find a bench to sit on that looks out over the ocean and is out of the way of everything after managing to lose his stalkers.

He recognises that this is a mission, and maybe he justifies his need to be alone for a while as getting Janssens out of the way while Nile, Andy, or Quỳnh scope out the man’s room, but it’s a flimsy excuse for just needing to not be watched for the few minutes that he will hopefully get before Janssens finds him. He’d managed to dodge his tail, but he doesn’t think that will make a huge impact on timing.

The sketchbook he pulls out of his bag is new; crisp when he opens it and slides his fingers down the spine to make it sit properly. His box of watercolour pencils and his water brushes get carefully set down on top of the bag next to him.

It’s a medium he hadn’t used in years, but he’s enjoyed starting again. It’s not the most forgiving, and he’s being foolish, using it on a mixed media sketchbook whose pages he struggles to hold down when he’s feeling stubborn about using tape, but he does enjoy a challenge.

The sea wind blows by and he’s glad he brought a sweater, but he wouldn’t change the vantage point for anything: the water sprawling out before him in endless rolling waves. He ponders what to draw for a few minutes, lets his mind drift. Eventually putting pencil to paper, and instead of the ocean, he watches Nile as Mrs. Lapage follows the lead of his lead. He hopes she’s doing okay.

*

A week before the mission had begun, he and Nile had been sitting on the couch in the safehouse living room,everyone else out doing last minute errands. Nile was scrolling through Netflix, and Yusuf was sat at the other end of the couch, paging through a book he’d found stashed on one of the old shelves in a bedroom. He turns a page and Nile’s voice fills the quiet space of the living room.

“Sometimes I think about logging into my family’s Netflix account and liking movies just to see if they’d notice me doing it,” Joe’s head comes up at her words, Nile’s voice is somber as she slowly makes her way through her list.

Joe puts his book aside. “It is, in some ways, more difficult to let go and finish the grieving process now than it was when I became immortal. The millions of ways that you can continue to contact those who you have left behind,” Joe reaches out to put a hand on her shoulder.

“Do you want to watch a movie with me?” Nile asks as she continues to scroll through her list.

“I’d love to. Did you have one in mind?” he grabs the blanket that Nicky had left on the back of the couch and moves closer to Nile.

“The last time I went home, my brother came out to me,” Nile says, continuing to look through the offerings. “He told me there was a boy he was dating that he shared classes with. I could tell he was trying not to cry the entire time because he was so worried about what I would say. I didn’t know I was bi at the time, but even if I did and had told him, it didn’t matter. All I knew was how could there be a moment where I didn’t love him.” Joe stays quiet, listening to the hitch in Nile’s breath. He knows the first part of the story, but the second part is new, held tight to Nile’s heart.

“We ended up watching Moonlight together, after, and both of us were sobbing messes by the end. And even six years later, I ask myself every few months: Do I want to watch it again, or do I want to recapture that memory of watching it with him.”

Yusuf brings his arm around her shoulders, presses a kiss to her head.

When she reaches forward again, she finds Into the Spider-Verse and puts it on. Joe carefully arranges the blanket around them, letting her lean back on his chest as the movie starts. He can hear her sniffling, so he rests his head on hers and tucks her closer to him.

The movie is excellent.

*

When Joe pulls himself from the memory, he finds he’s paused in his design and suddenly feels so melancholy that he puts the sketchbook and pencils back into his bag. He grabs his tea and just sits quietly with it. He aches to hold the people he loves again. Even Booker, who he hasn’t hugged in the six years since his return.

He is still not ready to have a friendship with Booker again.

Joe’s phone vibrates – a text from Nicky lights up the screen.

 _My shining_ 🌟: _Alphonse is here. He’s alone._

And there it is. As if Joe had summoned it by simply thinking it. He starts and stops several messages, trapped by betrayal and his fear for himself and Nicky that should have gone away but instead stays close like an old friend. Wanting to make sure that Nicky knows that Joe wouldn’t stop him from speaking to Booker if his own feelings had changed towards the Frenchman.

 _Talk to him if you want, love. It will take me a while, still, but there’s nothing you can do about that. Love you_ 💕

He would need to chat with Nicky. There was too much going on in his head and this mission was not a place where they could check in with one another and do a little soul searching.

Joe lets his gaze sweep across the water, his forehead creased.

“ _I didn’t expect to see you here, Schatteke,”_

Son of a bitch.

The man has found him pretty quickly given the circumstances.

“I would like you to call me by my name please,” Joe says, taking a sip from the tea in his hands.

“I’ll think about it. Contemplating the ocean? I’m surprised that you aren’t with your husband. Trouble in paradise?”

“Not at all. He had some emails to send this morning and I needed some time alone. Ten years on, you really know your partner’s quirks,” it takes everything Joe has to not put more emphasis on the word ‘alone’.

“I wouldn’t know,” the man drops Joe’s bag to the ground so he can sit down next to him.

“My husband also wanted to inform you that if he hears that you’ve been harassing me again, he will call ship security,” Janssens tips his head back in laughter in response to Joe.

“Harassment? That’s a bit over-dramatic don’t you think?” Janssens says, his smile bright when he looks back at Joe again. “I think we need to rehash what I said to you yesterday at the pool. It’s clear you didn’t understand what I said the first time,” Janssens smiles.

Joe starts to speak, but Janssens runs right over him.

“Like I said, I am a kind man simply enjoying a gorgeous face. Your constant resistance to my kindness baffles me, as all I’m trying to do is give you a compliment. Maybe I should make my intentions more explicit to help you out? Let's skip over the niceties since they seem wasted on you. You let me pamper you for a few days, and your husband figures out what he’s been missing in terms of making sure you know how appreciated you are,” Janssens makes his offer like Joe’s already accepted it.

It’s only while Janssens is waiting for his answer that Joe manages to get a word in. “I really don’t think this is going to work out. I understand what you’re offering, but it’s not going to happen.” Janssens seems surprised that his deal's been declined. Joe knows what he’s doing is stupid, that there were a multitude of options that could open up for them if he had said yes to Janssens offer. But he can’t do it, shudders at the thought of spending even a second with Janssens of his own free will, even under the auspices of a mission.

Janssens’ lips purse, then he sighs. “It’s truly unfortunate, Jakob, because you have caught my eye like no one else has in ages. Having you on my arm would really make this a perfect cruise for me, and I think that you aren’t being very understanding about that. The other thing is…”

Joe freezes at the feeling of a knife between his ribs, struggling with his instinctive reaction to fight back.

“I don’t care what you or your husband think. At all.” Janssens turns towards him, crossing one leg over the other and putting his other arm up behind Joe on the bench. “I have lots of people willing to make sure my trip goes smoothly. You can decline my offer, if you want, but understand that I will happily see your husband into the ship’s morgue or off the side of the boat,” Joe stays frozen, reminding himself that he is a civilian.

“And just to make sure you understand the rules of the game: It is far more likely that he’ll end up at the bottom of the ocean than I face any consequences for what I’m doing. Now,” Janssens adjusts his grip on the knife, bringing it up to rest it at the corner of Joe’s eye, underneath his glasses.

“I think I have been playing extremely nice with you. I haven’t pushed, haven’t touched you, I’ve left you alone for the most part. I’m a patient man, but when I see something I want and something keeps trying to prevent me from getting it, I become frustrated,” the knife lifts off of Joe’s eye, drifts back down to his ribs as Janssens hand comes up, carefully tugging Joe’s face towards him. His thumb lingering in the corner of Joe’s mouth.

“I need you to understand that even the best men have limited patience – especially when the prize is someone like you. I would also love to leave your husband alone. No need for me to be angry about a man who doesn’t know what kind of firepower he’s playing with. He’s just trying to protect what he has. I can understand that completely. But I need you to be more cooperative so that I can continue to leave him alone to his own devices,” Janssens’ hand leaves his face. Joe muscles down the desire to kill him, wonders why they haven’t killed him and simply broken into his room. Remembers that Copley had asked them to do their best to keep him alive until they had the data and an exit strategy.

“How about this,” Janssens says, as if he’s simply negotiating with Joe. “I’ll give you until tonight to figure out the choice that you would like to make. Feel free to tell your husband about it. I’m sure he’d be happy to continue living, and I’m sure you’d be happy to help him continue living. I’ll set up a nice dinner at 7pm in the restaurant you had your anniversary in, and I’ll leave a chair open for you. If you come, then of course I’ll leave your husband alone. He can enjoy the rest of his cruise knowing that he’ll be left alive. You will join me, of your own volition of course, and we’ll have a wonderful vacation while I spoil you rotten,” Janssens’ face looks ecstatic with the idea of it.

“And after?” Joe croaks out.

“Depends on how you perform, I guess. But that’s a little detail we can work out at dinner. No need to get ahead of ourselves. The last thing I want to say, Jakob, is very important and I need you to pay attention,” The knife starts to dig in, and Joe sucks in a breath.

“If you attempt to fuck with me, maybe by contacting the police or your family, I won’t give a second thought to stabbing your husband to death in front of you, and then opening you up and taking your fucking organs one by one to put them on ice. You’re worth something to me, but not that much. Capiche?” Joe nods, the knife disappears, and Janssens stands.

“Now, I’ll leave you to your decision. Again, feel free to speak to your husband about this, I don’t care. I’m sure he’ll understand what the consequences might be if he says anything,” Janssens smiles. “I’ll see you at dinner,” and walks off.

As soon as Joe loses sight of him, he puts his head between his knees, urging his body to calm down, _please_ calm down.

He’s suddenly been thrown back to Merrick’s lab. Isn’t that silly? It’s been six years and Joe is still stuck there somehow. The knife in his side and the words out of Janssens’ mouth, the bone-chilling reality that Joe can regrow organs and Janssens is an organ trafficker. How Joe could be trapped with Janssens for years as he gets his body cut apart, regrows what he’s lost, then is cut apart again. The horror that Nicky could be the body on the table instead of his.

It takes twenty minutes before his breathing has slowed down, but if nothing else, he won’t have to act too hard to convince Nicky something awful happened to him.

*

“We can’t let him have you,” Nicky is staring at Joe’s face, his hands cupping it and his thumb sliding across Joe’s cheek. The cold fury in Nicky’s eyes outweighs any that showed up while they were playing shuffleboard.

“Love, we don’t have a choice. He will kill you if I don’t go with him,”

“And you may disappear if you go with him! Or die! What if I can never find you again?” fear has seeped into Nicky’s gaze.

“We’re on a ship, I’m sure he can’t go too far,”

“We get to port tomorrow, soul of mine, you could end up _anywhere_. Please understand. We have to contact someone. Surely there is someone? How could he know who we are contacting? What does he have, access to our wifi or something?”

“ _Enrico,_ I can’t risk that he’ll come after you. He promised he would leave you alone if I just spent some time with him. We’ll get to the end of the vacation, I’m sure it will be fine. You just need to get away, but I promise it will be fine,”

“You can’t know that,”

The conversation is mostly for the cameras. Joe and Nicky already know that Janssens has no access to their phones, that they’ve been using a hundred different work arounds to avoid any possibility of emails being read or phones being compromised while still looking like they're using the ships wifi. Janssens been sloppy anyway, installing cameras but never going through their stuff. 

They also know that Joe will go with Janssens because it provides an incredible opportunity to get into Janssens rooms.

Needless to say, their lunch with Alphonse and Elena as Jakob and Enrico is tense, but as Nicky, Joe, Nile, and Booker? Amazing.

*

When Joe sits down in the restaurant, he reminds himself that he is, while not necessarily a typical professional, a professional nonetheless. Nicky is back in their room but had been more than happy to hand Joe a pair of clip-on earrings with a microphone in it for surveillance while Joe was getting dressed. Joe can feel his husband’s murderous aura from their room, but Nicky is patient and will happily wait to ensure he can inflict maximum damage when the time comes.

Janssens is thrilled as he watches Joe sit down. It’s the same table that he and Nicky had sat at not two days ago. Truly a class act. He smiles at Joe as he pours a glass of wine for him.

“It’s good to have you here Jakob,” The meal that Janssens ordered for the both of them is set down in front of them as soon as Joe is seated. The rest of the restaurant is empty with the exception of the waitstaff.

All Joe can think is how agonizing it is that this man would try and woo him on a cruise of all places.

“I don’t know what to say to that except that I’d like to know that you’ll leave my husband untouched,” Joe says, tight-lipped and not touching the wine.

“We can discuss that after dinner. I’m sure you understand that I hate discussing business on an empty stomach,” Janssens tucks his napkin into his shirt collar before picking up his knife and fork, gesturing at Joe’s dinner. “Don’t let it get cold.”

Joe has eaten ten course meals with the most fractious and irascible humans on earth, easily gaining their laughter and never once showing a movement towards nerves. He struggles to eat mediocre chicken sitting across from a pedestrian organ trafficker on a cruise ship.

“You mentioned going to school in Bologna, what is your PhD in if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Poetry, specifically medieval Persian poetry,” Joe says.

“How interesting. What kind of poetry do Persians create?”

“A variety of different forms,” Joe does not elaborate, although he’s sure that won’t endear him to Janssens.

“How many languages do you speak, if I may ask,” Janssens is eating so slowly.

“A few,” Joe is getting through this meal on grit alone. “Dutch, Italian, Persian, some others,” In the back of his head, he thinks on the fact that some of the languages he speaks are kept alive only because he speaks them with his family.

“Truly a scholar. What do you like to do in your spare time?”

The meal continues like this for two agonizing hours: An interrogation instead of a dinner. Janssens poses a question, Joe gets through his answer, simply glad everyone had grilled each other so hard about their covers before the mission started. He asks some questions of Janssens, but they either send the man off on ten minute long monologue about how well he did something and not allowing Joe to get a word in, or he never answers whatever Joe had asked.

When the waitstaff finally come forward to clear plates, Joe thinks that he may finally start getting some answers. Janssens orders them dessert instead.

Half an hour later, Janssens sets down his spoon. Joe’s flan remains untouched. “Now then, I’ve been fed and watered and I am willing to talk business now,” he removes the napkin from his collar and looks at Joe’s unfinished flan with annoyance. “Let’s talk about what you should expect from the next two weeks until we are back in harbour.”

“And my husband?”

“Safe. Nothing to worry about. I’m sure I can send someone to spend some time with him so he can participate in activities while you’re gone. Let’s not discuss him though. He has nothing to do with this, does he?” Janssens voice is sharp.

“I just wanted to know he would be safe,” Joe whispers, trying his hardest to imbue his voice with nerves, as if Nicky couldn’t take these guys down in two seconds.

“Don’t worry about it. Instead, let’s talk about some of the activities I’ve planned for the next two weeks,” and the man has the gall to pull out the cruise's activity schedule.

*

When they get to Janssens’ ‘Imperial Suite’ that night he looks at Joe like he expects him to swoon. Joe obliges him, looking around the room in awe as he double checks cameras. His eyes fall on a desk with a laptop sitting out, and his fingers cross that Janssens makes no distinction between personal and work computer.

“I’ve got a nice big bed for the two of us in the bedroom. It’s early, but I’m sure we can find a way to kill some time before we’re tired,”

Joe feels disgust run down his spine as he’s running through plans on how he might be able to get the laptop into the bedroom without having to worry about the cameras. There's blind spots, certainly, but not enough that Joe could sneak it in. Maybe offer to watch a movie?

Janssens solves the problem for him, picking up the laptop and ferrying it into the bedroom, stopping at the doorway as he waits for Joe to follow him.

Joe lets his eyes move to the door to the suite. Janssens men haven’t come inside.

“Don’t worry. I leave them outside at night – they’ve got a room they share, and I don’t like them in my space,” Janssens speaks of his guards as though they are dogs instead of the men.

Joe reluctantly follows Janssens into the bedroom, watching as he dumps his laptop on the bed. Joe makes his way over to the armchair that sits in the corner in order to remove his boots.

Janssens had been honest earlier about getting someone to pick-up his stuff from Nicky, but when he opens his suitcase, the clothes that should be folded by Nicky have clearly been pawed at an gone through, although whether by Janssens or his staff, Joe doesn’t know. It only took this long for them to check his stuff.

“Why don’t you get ready for bed, _Schatteke_? I’ve got a couple quick emails to send, but you’ll have my full attention after,” he looks at Joe like he thinks that Joe will be the one to make the first move.

Joe grabs his pyjamas, a worn out t-shirt that will fit too big around the shoulders because it’s one of Nicky’s favourites, and a pair of pajama pants with paintbrushes on them that Nile had spotted while they were in New Jersey and snatched up. He adds his hygiene products to the pile and hustles to the bathroom.

The report had been that the bathroom was clear of cameras, and Joe looks around as though impressed by the bathroom in order to make sure he’s not being watched.

Nothing.

He spends 15 glorious minutes in privacy getting ready for bed, even tacks on a few extra moments to just sit on the side of the bathtub in silence.

~*~

When he leaves the room, Janssens is naked down to the waist, his legs under the comforter, and the sound of two people having sex playing on his computer. He makes direct eye contact with Joe and smiles.

Joe feels himself and all of the previous lives he’s ever lived make an incredulous noise.

Janssens pauses whatever video he’s watching and gestures to the unoccupied side of the bed before unpausing the video and pawing at himself through his briefs.

Joe is frantically grabbing at his soul as it attempts to escape his body, just managing to stuff it back in in time to walk over to the opposite side of the bed, gingerly sitting down and putting his earrings on the night stand. He reminds himself that he’s been in hundreds of undercover situations before, contrary to all his reactions thus far.

Hopefully Janssens is passing it off as Jakob just being nervous.

Joe tentatively moves onto the bed, not ready to be under the covers with Janssens yet. His phone thankfully wasn’t confiscated, although all of his pictures, conversations, and apps had been looked through by one of Janssens guards while they’d been at dinner. He goes onto the poetry website he posts to for something to read, only distracted for a moment by the mirror on the ceiling. Joe focuses on his phone harder.

“ _It is a shame, Jakob, that I get this treatment when it’s clear you have no issue with sex,”_ Joe looks over, his brows furrowed, and then realises that the video Janssens is watching is the murky image of him and Nicky on the night after their anniversary dinner.

His jaw drops. It’s not a character choice.

“ _Surprised? I told you, I have ways of making sure I’m happy Jakob. It’s nice to listen to of course, but I was certainly hoping for a taste of the real thing._ ” Janssens sets the laptop near his feet on the bed. He’s clearly aroused as he tugs Joe’s arm to get him to move closer to the centre of the bed. Joe allows it, playing the weak academic. Janssens lifts himself up and wedges himself between Joe’s legs, pawing at Joe’s chest through the t-shirt that says: ‘don’t be upsetti, have some spaghetti’.

“And what if I would like to be the one on top?” Joe croaks out, flying through plans and landing on the easiest one.

Janssens looks like he’s about to lose right there. “Go ahead sweetheart, try and flip me.”

Janssens may be gym strong, but in a swift motion, Joe clenches his thighs around Janssens middle, clenches his abs, and flips Janssens right into the nightstand, knocking him out cold.

~*~

The first thing Joe does after ensuring that Janssens loses consciousness is double check he isn’t wearing one of the watches that sends a signal that a heart-attack is occurring. None. He listens for footsteps outside. None. Joe then goes to where he left his boots and unclips two USBs from hidden compartments the heels.

The clip of him and Nicky making love in the dark is still paused on Janssens screen as Joe crams the two USBs in, tapping the Y key with the back of his knuckle when a prompt comes up. The first USB is there to run the programs that will download all of Janssens computer to the cloud for Copley to access, the second is there to directly download on to itself as a back up. He watches as the program boots up and knows the next few minutes need to go perfectly.

He checks again on Janssens. Somehow the man managed to escape with no bloody head wounds, but he is down for the count. Good.

Joe waits out the computer until the “Finished downloading :)” sign appears, safely ejects the USBs and returns them both to his boots. He wipes down the laptop for prints as best he can with the bottom of his t-shirt, seriously ponders just picking up Janssens dead hand to help him mark the thing up, then puts everything back where he found it. He fires off a text to Nile and then he makes sure that the clip-on earrings that are now on the floor end up under the night table Janssens hit, as though he’d knocked them off when he’d fallen.

Joe moves to the centre of the room and starts forcing himself to hyperventilate, and when he thinks he probably looks flushed and upset enough, slams the door of the bedroom open yelling for help, watching as the two men who were standing guard outside immediately burst into the room. Joe is already babbling.

“He was on top… I just wanted to flip us over,” he lets himself get worked up, but one man is already in the room and checking on Janssens and the other is calling for reinforcements and a doctor.

Four more of Janssens’ people pour into the room, and if their numbers are correct, that leaves two that are likely with Nicky.

He heads back towards the bedroom but is stopped by one of the men.

“Please, let me just get my shoes. Please let me get my shoes,” the man looks over at Joe’s boots and nods, escorting Joe to grab his shoes before sending him back to the living room.

A young man, probably not older than nineteen leaves the bedroom shortly after Joe does and comes to sit on the couch with him. Joe is playing the good shock victim and is sitting in silence and shaking.

“Do you want a blanket? You look cold,” the young man starts, but is interrupted by a doctor rushing in.

Joe takes a moment, plays with his phone and nearly drops it. He hasn’t tied his boots on properly. “Does this mean I can go back to my husband? If he’s out cold, then he probably doesn’t need me here right?” He looks up at the young man, who looks like a deer caught in headlights.

“Ah, I don’t know? I’ve never… I started two weeks ago. I only came on this trip because another guy got sick and I was the only replacement because Emilio’s wife was having a baby and James is on crutches,”

Ah, Joe thinks, the man likely responsible for the shoddy camera job in these very rooms. Thankfully not responsible for the cameras in Joe and Nicky’s room.

“Please, I can go right?”

“Let’s wait to hear from the doctor. Do you at least want to step outside for a second to get out of the chaos?”

Joe nods his head.

They get out in the hallway and Joe can see Quỳnh and Andy loitering at the end of it, he turns to the newbie.

“I’m sorry but you’re right. I am cold. Would you mind getting a blanket for me?” Andy had said no cameras out in the hall.

“Oh! Of course, give me a second. Please don’t go anywhere I don’t want to get written up,” Joe nearly laughs at the idea of organ traffickers writing up their newbies.

Quỳnh and Andy are already behind him by the time the door closes behind the young man, and Joe kneels to tie his boots on, releasing both USBs and passing them off easily to Andy and Quỳnh who immediately go into their room.

Joe finishes tying his boots, but it still takes the young man another minute to come back. The kid is lucky that Janssens has blackmail material because otherwise Joe would have been out of here in a second.

“I found a blanket in the closet for you. Hopefully it’s warm enough?”

Joe has to get this kid out of here. There’s a chance he can still make good choices if he’s given the opportunities.

“What’s your name? Where are you from?” Joe asks, swaddling himself in the blanket.

The young man looks happy to be talking to someone, has likely been ignored these past couple of days because of how new he is. Probably didn’t even get two weeks of proper training.

“Arnau, I’m from Girona, in Catalonia?”

“ _I know it_ ,” Joe says in Catalan, watching as Arnau’s face lights up.

“ _Awesome! Are you from there as well?”_

_“No, from the Netherlands, but I’ve travelled a fair amount. How did you get this job Arnau?”_

Arnau pauses for a moment, trying to decide between letting more information out to someone he doesn’t actually know. “ _I got it off a job search site. It said it was looking for young men with experience in fighting. I used to bounce, but the hours for this job are much better. I’m not sure about it though. I’m getting a weird vibe off it._ ”

Joe is suddenly reminded of Gordon Ramsey interviewing the staff at bad restaurants.

“ _You should trust your gut. Do you think I’m in there because I want to be? Definitely not. I’m sure a smart guy like you could find different employment.”_

_“Should I give in my two weeks notice then?”_

Joe grins. “ _You’ve been here such a small amount of time you could probably quit today. If you want to just a short note should do it. Try and have a new job set up. As horrible as customer service, it’s easy to get jobs and you probably won’t meet a man who’s been blackmailed into sleeping with your boss unless you work at a restaurant or in a cult.”_ Arnau is nodding.

They chat for a little longer, and if Arnau notices that Joe seems to be recovering quite quickly from accidentally knocking a man out, he doesn’t mention it. 

It’s another half hour before the doctor hustles out of the room and he and Arnau end up back in the living room. The man who bugged the room he has with Nicky sits down across from him, nearly looming.

“So, what the fuck happened in there?”

*

Two hours later and Joe still has no idea if he’ll have to stick around, but he has received a text from Nile saying that from what Nicky's heard from the earrings, they are definitely planning on killing Nicky and probably him too at the end of the trip, so that's good.

Right now, Joe is laid out on the couch in the living room with a decorative pillow and the blanket that Arnau gave him, hoping he’ll be able to sleep as men continue to move in and out of the room. Joe’s memorised all their faces now, as well as some of their names – has also happily sent pictures off to Nile because they haven’t checked his phone. He includes Arnau's picture alongside a ‘don’t kill him’.

When he finally does get to sleep, he’s woken up by someone shaking him a couple hours later. He looks bleary eyed at the man who’s name Joe’s brain is not going to give him right now.

“The boss isn’t feeling great, but he’ll be going on a quick excursion ashore with you.” That’s probably not good. Joe allows his eyes to widen, nodding carefully.

As soon as the guard turns around and walks off, Joe lets the group chat know that it’s go time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scene involves the Janssens masturbating and then trying to get on top of Joe which doesn't go well for him.
> 
> The movie scene was definitely inspired by this conversation I had with themoonwhenIamlost: https://centurydependent.tumblr.com/post/628886484163936257/i-dont-know-if-my-ask-got-eaten-but-just-in-case
> 
> Also I realised that I would need an extra chapter despite this one being 5000 words 🙃


	5. Anchor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's go time!

Nicky spends most of the night listening to the muffled conversations over the pair of earrings that Joe has cleverly stashed somewhere in Janssens' room. 

It had taken everything that Nicky had not to rabbit punch both the fuckers milling around his door and tear off to go find Joe when he started to have a suspicion of what might be going on. The sound of Janssens’ head making contact with whatever the earrings were on was the only thing that kept him from doing something stupid.

Alongside listening to ongoing conversations, he's also been in the group chat, working through the last little bits of their plan. He tries his best to be a worried husband in front of the cameras in the room. He doesn't have to try too hard, but he still doesn’t know how well he pulls it off.

As it is, he knows that come morning, the two men outside of Nicky’s are going to bring him to meet Joe under the premise that Janssens has somehow developed a heart in the last eight hours and wants to allow Jakob and Enrico one last sojourn together before he separates them until the end of their vacation.

What will actually happen is that the two of them will be escorted to some isolated place, Enrico will be shot, and then the debate on whether or not to shoot Jakob will happen. 

He relays this to Nile who will relay it to Joe. 

At about three in the morning, they all receive an email from Copley with the names, backgrounds, and kill counts of the eight people in Janssens’ entourage. Copley doesn’t say anything explicitly, but it’s heavily implied that they can make a decision as to whether or not they want to permanently end them. Nicky looks through Arnau’s background, happy to see that it backs up what he told Joe. 

Arnau is still in Janssens’ suite with Joe, and he will be living through this if Nicky has anything to say about it.

At eight in the morning, after four rough hours of sleep, Nicky gets woken up by a text from the cruise line alerting him that the ship is docking in less than an hour and that if he’s planning to go ashore to please have his swipe card for getting on and off the boat. 

He gets ready slowly, knowing that he can’t look like he’s expecting to go anywhere. The knock on the door comes when he's grabbing his essentials in preparation for breakfast.

“You’ve been invited to join your husband on an excursion. The boss thought it would be nice of him to do that for you.” The man, Lucas, seems irritated to be put on Nicky duty.

Nicky let’s his eyes widen. “I get to see him today?” Nicky’s hand goes up to nervously smooth down his mustache. 

“We’ll be joining you of course. Apparently, there was an accident with your husband and Mr. Janssens yesterday, so the fact that he’s offering you this opportunity is really generous of him,” 

Nicky lets his eyes go wide. “An accident? Is Jakob okay?”

“He’s fine, the boss tried to get frisky last night, and your husband tried to get on top – knocked Janssens into the nightstand and knocked him out cold.” Lucas’ face turns gleeful. “Guess he doesn’t miss you too much if he’s jumping on the first guy with a bit of money?”

Nicky let’s himself flinch back, let’s hurt onto his face. It makes Lucas laugh. 

He’s still grinning when he tells Nicky that he’ll be skipping the ship’s breakfast, as they’re on orders to get him to where Janssens is.

“I’m sure you and hubby can get some breakfast at a cafe together,” Lucas smirks. Nicky wonders whether Enrico should start panicking now or not. He’ll wait it out.

He gets marched through the cruise line, and Nicky has to honestly wonder whether these men actually know what discretion is. When they get to the gangplank, Nicky dutifully swipes his card. He’s calm when they step out onto solid land for the first time in three days.

It’s when he asks where Jakob is and the answer he gets is his escorts shepherding him away from public spaces that he thinks it might not be a bad idea to panic. He starts to resist their friendly arms around his shoulders, but the arms shift to his chest and waist, while firm hands wrap around his wrists. It's when they've fully left the public areas and entered a dimly lit warehouse that he starts to properly thrash.

“No need to do that Mr. Caprio.” Nicky squints as his guards, and, by virtue of them holding him, Nicky come to a stop on the cemented area next to the water. The area is empty of anyone, and Nicky suspects that the organisation they’re after probably owns it. Standing before him is Janssens, with a bandage on his head, his six guards including Arnau, and Yusuf. 

A guard is holding a gun to Yusuf's head. The guard's other hand keeps Yusuf's hands behind his back. 

“Jakob!” Nicky starts to thrash again.

“Enrico!” Joe turns to Janssens. “Please don’t hurt him! He hasn’t done anything I swear!”

All Janssens does is roll his eyes, clearly bored with the usual rigamarole of victims begging for their lives. 

He clears his throat. “Enrico, why don’t you tell your husband about why we’ve brought you here?” 

Nicky had thought they were bringing him here to kill him. “To kill me?”

Janssens looks annoyed. “Yes obviously, but why don’t you explain why?”

Nicky has no idea what Janssens is talking about. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The guard behind him moves around, slaps him, and then moves back into position.

Janssens looks behind him at Joe. “Your husband is undercover, Jakob, though with what agency I don’t know.”

Nicky keeps his body relaxed, let’s the confusion he feels show on his face because truly: What is Janssens talking about?

“I don’t know how you thought I wouldn’t notice Mr. Caprio. Between that horrific mustache and the the stare you gave me the second time we met? How could I not have known? You think I don’t recognise the eyes of a killer?” he pulls a gun out of his shoulder holster. Ignores Joe’s increasingly desperate shouts.

Janssens begins again. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice the fact that you clocked me the minute that I got on that pool deck and started talking to your husband? That I would believe that you worked in sales for even a second with the kind of personality you have?” Janssens checks the clip in the gun.

“How smug you looked at your anniversary dinner when most men would have either left or confronted me directly? The fact that you clearly put your husband out as bait to catch my attention?” 

Janssens sighs. “So, the question is now, was your husband in on it? Because that will make my next decision either easy or difficult.” He points the gun in Joe’s direction.

“No!” Nicky pulls at the men holding him. “He didn’t know! He didn’t know anything please!”

Joe’s face is shock.

Janssens smiles, dropping the muzzle of the gun away from Joe. He turns to where Arnau is standing next to him and passes him the gun carelessly.

“I’m glad to hear it Enrico. Even with the incident yesterday, I’m very much looking forward to spending more time with your husband. He’ll need so much comforting after your untimely death.” He gestures at Arnau to point the gun at Nicky. “We’ll consider this a celebration of two weeks with the company Arnau,” 

Arnau is shaking. “I don’t know how to shoot a gun. I never learned,”

Janssens frowns. “The should have started your training on that,” he pauses, takes a second to look at Nicky, trapped between two of his goons. “It’s fine. If you miss? Que sera sera.” Janssens hums for a second. “Actually, this could be fun. Why don’t you close your eyes? We’ll see what happens.”

Nicky feels his jaw tick, and the two men behind him tense. His eyes drift over to Joe, who only has one man holding him. Their eyes lock. 

When Nicky sees Arnau’s eyes close, he starts moving, and Joe follows him. 

Joe’s head snaps back into the face of the man holding him. The idiot wasn’t smart enough to keep his head to the side, and now his nose bursts in a shower of blood. His hands drop the gun and come up to cover his face, allowing Joe to duck down and send his elbow back into the man’s groin. The guard goes down, and Joe grabs his gun, shooting two other guards but getting winged by another bullet across the arm. He’s yelling at Arnau to drop and keep his eyes closed.

Leading by half a moment, Nicky kicks back at the man behind him on his left, hitting his knee with a crunch. The goon shrieks as he goes down, but Nicky’s already moving to the second guard, grabbing the thumb on the hand holding him and ripping it back towards the man’s wrist. The guard howls, and Nicky punches him in the throat, listening as his breath turns to whistling and grabbing the gun from his undone shoulder holster. The other guard still howling over his knee, but Nicky fires two shots, and everything goes quiet.

It’s Joe, the goon behind Joe who’s still curled around himself, Arnau, Janssens, and Nicky. 

Janssens is sheet white and screaming at Arnau to shoot the fucking gun. 

Joe shouts over him. “Don’t open your eyes Arnau! Don’t open them!” 

Arnau is shaking and his grip is loose on the gun, but his eyes are tightly closed. Janssens makes a grab for the weapon, but Joe is already moving. 

Nicky fires, hitting Janssens’ hand and sending the firearm he’d managed to get a grip on skittering away across the dock. The organ trafficker’s hand has gone to pieces. Nicky turns and puts a bullet in the head of the guard who’s starting to get up and go for his gun.

Nicky sighs, watching as Joe hustles Arnau away, telling him not to look. Nicky suddenly feels his age.

Janssens is howling desperately, holding the wrist of the hand he's lost 50% of. Nicky makes no move to help him, instead waiting for the footsteps of his beloved to come back to him. He should do something to end Janssens’ pain, it would be the right thing to do. 

He stays where he is.

“Nicolò, my love, come back to me,” Joe’s hand is on his face, and Nicky realises that he’s been stuck staring at Janssens, who seems to have gone into shock. Joe takes the gun out of Nicky’s hand. 

“You’ve done enough. It’s okay. I can do it, Nicolò,” Joe could do it, Nicky knows this, but Joe hates killing. Feels sorrowful even when it’s necessary. Nicolò, on the other hand, has never been bothered by it as much. Suffering? Yes, but not the necessary death of evil. 

Nicky’s puts his hands over top of where Joe’s is resting on the grip. “Let me do this for you.”

Joe frowns before a grim smile emerges. “Together?” It’s all too dramatic and Nicky cracks a smile at Joe’s suggestion. 

There’s a sound of pain from Janssens, and Nicky walks towards him.

Nicky turns to the man. “ _It’s a shame,_ ” Nicky says in Flemish, and Janssens eyes go wide. “ _It’s a shame that I don’t have more time with you. Because for what you’ve done? The people you’ve hurt? I can’t tell you how much I would enjoy ensuring that your death is even more painful than what you are feeling right now. And slower. But you are lucky,_ ” Nicky tilts his head in Joe’s direction, never taking his eyes off the man in front of him. “ _You are so lucky that I met this man, because whether he intended to or not, his love for me and my love for him has gotten me, mostly, past the desire for suffering in humans like you._ ” He stops in front of Janssens and feels Joe come up at his back. Nicky reaches back for Joe's hand. 

They bring the gun up. 

The bullet hits Janssens between the eyes, and he drops. 

*

Nicky steps off the gangplank. 

Booker and Nile burst into the spare room that Janssens’ people are staying in. They get two knives into the guards before the thugs can get a message off. The laptop that’s getting all of the information from both sets of cameras is discovered and the data immediately taken from it by the set of USBs that Nile and Booker have. The cameras are then disabled. They spend the next half an hour cleaning up the carnage, attaching the computer equipment to the bodies to weigh them down, and dumping the corpses wrapped in the hotel duvets off the balcony. They’d checked ahead of time, and the rooms below and beside them have no guests in them and the side of the ship faces towards the ocean. The morgue will ask too many questions. They clean the room top to bottom.

Shortly after Booker and Nile make their entry and disable the cameras, Quỳnh and Andy enter Janssens’ suite and begin a complete sweep, cleaning and removing cameras as they go. Andy compliments Quỳnh’s latex gloves and basks in her laugh. They’re efficient at this point – in and out in a half an hour, mostly worried about anything that Joe may have touched and working with the list that Joe sent them. The biggest hassle is the couch. 

They pass off Joe’s bag to Booker and Nile before heading to their own room to do the same thing, preempting any possible investigation that might crop up. 

Booker and Nile head to Joe and Nicky’s room, having already swept through their own room that morning. They pack Nicky’s things, remove cameras and change sheets. Nile gently teases Booker about the hairnets they have to wear, alongside the little booties over their shoes, everything stashed ahead of time as soon as they knew that Joe and Nicky would be the primary target.

Booker and Nile dump the last load of laundry in the laundry chute after removing their gear. They’ll tuck their hairnets, booties, and gloves inside the paper bags their breakfast came in and dump those in separate garbage cans.

Quỳnh and Andy leave the boat on the gangplank. They smile and joke with the woman who in charge, mentioning they have an apartment near by and that the cruise was just a different way to get from Point A to Point B. The attendant will pass it off as eccentric rich people. French artiste Surçi R. Doe and her personal trainer Vivienne Davenport will leave the ship and find the car left for them. They will drive six blocks away, stop, and wait to see if they need to be support.

Booker and Nile also leave the same way, dressed in matching floral patterned shirts. They wait for the first woman to go on break before they approach, smiling and nodding at the woman who’s there now. The attendant will see a thousand people that day and won’t remember them. Nile and Booker step off the gangplank and walk three blocks away to a café to wait to see if they need to be support. 

It doesn’t matter what either attendant does or doesn’t remember. The moment after Nile and Booker are on dry land, Copley erases their entire crew, Janssens, and all of Janssens’ guard from the ship manifest and from the Excel spreadsheet that Border Services had received from the cruise line. 

The six of them only hear about the fallout from the information they retrieved in bits and pieces, but there are thirteen politicians across five countries implicated. Copley knows how to put pressure on various parties enough that they will likely see time. If not, there are other ways.

Copley will ask them later why he received and email from a young man named Arnau. He’d mentioned that Jakob Bakker said Copley might have a job for him. Copley initially doesn’t, but when he thinks about how nice it might be to have someone mortal to work with, he figures he can find something for the young man to do. 

*

It's three weeks later and Joe smiles as a bottle of fruit juice is sat down on the table next to him alongside a plate holding their lunch. There’s a cocktail umbrella stuck cheekily into the top of one of the sandwiches. 

As soon as Janssens was dead, Nicky and Joe had texted the all clear and cleaned up the scene. They then texted that they would not be meeting up at the rendezvous point, and instead would be taking a vacation. 

To Joe's delight, they start their trip in Napoli. He's excited by the opulence of the hotel, and it triples when he finds out that Nicky got the honeymoon package. The first day, they don't leave the bed. Instead, they order ridiculously expensive room service and are gifted a box of chocolate covered strawberries by the hotel. It's only when the sun sets that they finally shower and stumble out of their room, ready to find a restaurant. Between the two of them, they cobble together enough memories that they manage to stumble upon one tucked into a back alley that they've visited before. Nicky looks at Joe as says if he gets shot in the same restaurant again, he'll be very disappointed. Joe mentions it's been fifty years since that happened, Nicolò, please let it go. Nicky links his pinky with Joe's and leads the way into the restaurant.

They eat, they digest, they go dancing. When they get back to their room, the fall into a dead sleep.

The next day they try and leave the hotel a little earlier in order to actually enjoy the sun. Nicky buys Joe sfogliatelle and ends up wiping ricotta off of Joe's cheek with his thumb. They make eye contact as Nicky licks the ricotta off his thumb. They kiss, they make out, they barely make it back to the hotel.

For the next two weeks, it's a wonderful routine broken only once.

The sun is setting on the bay as they quietly discuss Booker, sat out on the balcony and sharing an aperitivo. Nothing gets truly decided, but it feels good to check-in with one another and evaluate when the conversation might need to happen again.

When they both finally tire of the city crowds, they rent a car and slowly make their way south to Calabria, happy to spend another two weeks lazing about on various beaches down the coast. 

They’re on a beach in Tropea now, and Joe’s got a small pair of green swim trunks on. When he'd put them on the first time, just after they'd checked in to the first hotel after they'd left Napoli, he’d heard Nicky’s sharp inhale and had asked if there was something Nicky needed. Nicky's answer had involved turning Joe around and grinding into him. They’d proceeded to spend the next couple of hours not going to the beach.

Now, a week after that, Nicky is laying down a kiss on Joe’s shoulder as he sets down napkins, pulling a bottle opener out of his pocket and popping the cap off of Joe's juice and Nicky's beer. The two of them have managed to grab a beach shelter right near the shore, and the view is everything Joe has wanted. He may dig his sketchbook out later.

His hand reaches out to rest on Nicky's hip, and his husband turns to him and raises an eyebrow, his face blissfully clean-shaven.

"Don't start something here you would not be willing to finish right here, love." 

Joe smiles. “I almost miss the mustache,” he says as he lets his thumb make twirling patterns across Nicky's hipbone.

“You don’t,” Nicky says, short of breath. 

“You’re right I don’t. I hated that thing,” Joe grabs for Nicky's hand and lays a kiss on the back. 

“Kiss me, my love?” Joe asks.

Nicky leans down. “As many times as you want," and kisses him. 

-End-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone for coming on this journey with me! This is the longest fic I've ever written that I've actually finished. Probably the longest thing I've ever written period!
> 
> Thank you very much for all the support that I've gotten from kudos and comments! They really warm my heart. 
> 
> Again, please feel free to find me @ centurydependent on tumblr :)
> 
> EDIT: lollll I'm a sham. Made some changes to the last section of this chapter when I re-read through when I wasn't sleep deprived.

**Author's Note:**

> This image is what I had in mind for Joe and Nicky: https://h-yb.tumblr.com/post/627922097358946304  
> I have never been on a cruise in my life. 
> 
> You can find me on tumblr @centurydependent


End file.
